Chicken and Broccoli Fettuccini Alfredo

This recipe is simple and fast, but it's also really tasty and very hearty. It only takes about half an hour if you time it correctly, and paired with some good crusty bread, it makes for an extraordinarily satisfying meal. I recommend a crusty french bread and butter as accompaniment.

One thing it's not: low calorie. But don't be tempted to skimp or substitute on the heavy cream or the cheese. Part of what makes this so good is the creamy texture and rounded taste, and those don't come from anything but the real thing. Besides, this one's tasty enough to be worth it.

Chicken and Broccoli Fettuccine Alfredo

1 box whole wheat fettuccini

3 boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized chunks
1 tbsp olive oil

2 1/2 cups broccoli florets 

3 tbsp unsalted sweat cream butter

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated 

1 1/2 tsp oregano

1 tsp parsley

1 1/2 tbsp fresh basil, finely chiffonade (optional)

Salt

Pepper

Additional parmesan cheese for garnish

This is one of those recipes where you need to do multiple things at once. A couple hours before you start (or in the morning if you're going to do this thing right after you come home from work), salt and pepper the chicken breasts so that the seasoning has time to soak in a bit.

About half an hour before you want to serve, start by putting the water for the pasta on. Salt it, and set it to high until it boils. Then, in a second pot, prepare the broccoli for steaming by putting on a pot with a thin layer of water and dumping in the broccoli florets, but don't turn it on yet. In a non-stick saucepan set to medium-high heat, drizzle in the oil and saute the chicken pieces. When the chicken is done (should take between 5 and 7 minutes), remove from the pan and set aside.

Turn on the broccoli to high, and set a timer for five or six minutes. When it goes off, take the broccoli off the heat. While the broccoli is cooking, taste the pasta. If it's done, take it off the heat, drain it, and set aside. If it's not done, make a note of the time so that you'll have a good idea of when you need to take it off. 

While the broccoli is cooking, use the pan that you used for the chicken to make your alfredo sauce. Melt the butter and add the cream, garlic powder, oregano, parsley, and basil (if you're using it) to that. Heat for two minutes on as high a heat as you can get it without boiling. After two minutes, add the cheese. Stir slowly but constantly until the cheese is melted. Taste it, then season with salt and pepper as appropriate. Simmer for another minute (still stirring). 

To serve, place the pasta in your serving dish. Add the broccoli and the chicken to the pan with the sauce, and stir. Once the broccoli and chicken are completely coated with sauce, add the whole pan to the serving dish on top of the pasta. You can toss it, if you wish, or just leave the broccoli-chicken mixture on top of the pasta and trust your diners to dig in enough to get both pasta and toppings. Serve immediately (this is important. You want to time all this so that you get the sauce to the table as soon as possible once it's finished), with additional parmesan for garnish if you wish.

Serves: 4

Ginger Cookies

Okay, I tried these once and I'm sort of addicted. I confess. It's a hardship.

No kidding, these cookies are great. I've made three batches so far this year, and I'll probably make two more before I'm done. If you want an easy cookie to do for the holidays, this is it. The only catch is that it has to sit in the fridge for at least two hours (preferably more than two; up to five days is acceptable and more time will help with the spice blending).


Ginger Cookies
From Orangette, adapted from Leslie Mackie’s Macrina Bakery and Café Cookbook: Favorite Breads, Pastries, Sweets & Savories

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 ½ tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
½ cup vegetable shortening, at room temp
6 tbs unsalted butter, at room temp
1 ½ cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp peeled and grated fresh ginger, accept no substitutes. Powdered ginger does not work here, it must be freshly grated for the recipe to work. (This takes a larger thumb of fresh ginger than you might expect. Buy about twice as much ginger as you think you'll need, because when you grate it, you'll find that a lot of ginger turns out to be useless water.)
1/3 cup molasses
½ cup sugar

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt, and mix with a whisk to evenly blend. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl and with electric beaters, cream the shortening, butter, and brown sugar until smooth and pale in color. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until incorporated and scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition. Add the ginger and molasses, and mix to blend well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl again.

Using a rubber spatula, fold half of the flour mixture into the wet mixture. After the first half is incorporated, add the remaining flour, and continue folding gently until all of the flour has been absorbed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. [At this point, the dough can hold for up to 4 days.]

Preheat the oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment (makes clean up so much easier, also helps cooking. Parchment. If you're making cookies and you haven't discovered it, you should). Pour the granulated sugar into a pie pan or shallow bowl.

When the dough is solid and cool enough to handle without horrible sticking, scoop it out of the bowl and roll it into balls a scant 2 inches in diameter. Toss each of the balls gently in the sugar, and then place them on the baking sheet (you should be able to fit eight on a single sheet), leaving 3 inches between each ball. Bake cookies on the center rack of the oven for 15-17 minutes, until golden brown and slightly puffed. Let cool on the baking sheet for 15 minutes before transferring to a rack. Repeat with two more sheets of cookies.

Serves: who even knows. The recipe produces about 25 cookies, but if you eat them as quickly as my family, then it only serves about three people.

Cider Glazed Salmon

Things what I like: easy, fast fish recipes. They're healthy(ish), they're really quick, and they're practically foolproof. Exactly what I like in a go-to recipe.



Cider-Glazed Salmon

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 shallot, peeled and sliced into strips
2 cups fresh unfiltered apple cider
4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets
Salt
1/2 cup heavy cream

In a large, heavy skillet, combine the butter, shallot, and cider. Place over medium-high heat, and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes, then remove and discard the shallots (use a slotted spoon to remove shallots if necessary).

Place the fillets gently in the pan, adjusting the heat so that the liquid just trembles. Spoon a bit of the liquid over them, so that their tops begin to cook. Cover and simmer very gently. The fillets will cook for 8 to 10 minutes per inch of thickness. To test for doneness, make a small slit with a paring knife in the thickest part of the fillet: all but the very center of each piece should be opaque. (It will keep cooking after you pull it from the heat). Transfer the cooked salmon to a platter, and cover loosely with aluminum foil to keep warm.

To prepare the glaze, raise the heat under the pan to medium-high, add a pinch of salt, and simmer, stirring frequently, until the liquid is reduced by about two-thirds. It should be slightly thickened and should just cover the bottom of the pan. Reduce the heat to medium, and add the cream. Stir well to combine. Return the heat to medium-high and boil, stirring frequently, for a few minutes, until the mixture darkens to a pale golden caramel and is reduced by one-third to one-half.

Place the salmon fillets on 4 plates and top each with a spoonful of sauce. It should coat them like a thin, loose glaze. Serve immediately.


Serves: 4 (more or less depending on how you cut your salmon)

Poached Fish With Lemon

This is so easy. I made this tonight and served it alongside French Carrot Salad and fresh green beans, and it was a fantastic meal. Simple and fast, with clean flavors that complement each other and balance one another beautifully. It's pretty too: colorful enough to be sophisticated, and fast enough to be everyday casual. Amazing.

The one thing about this recipe that you CANNOT mess with: you want everything to be as fresh as possible. Tilapia is the freshest fish I could find, so that's what I used. My fish was caught on the same day that I prepared it. If you have cod or swordfish or even a really good salmon supplier that can get you fish that was caught today, use that. Two hints to help find fresh fish if you're not buying from a fish market: hunt down your grocery store's fish or meat manager and ask when the fish came in. In my experience, they'll love you for taking an interest, and they'll go above and beyond to help you out if you tell them that you want the freshest thing they have and that it's important. Tip two: if you can't find the manager to tell you what the freshest thing is, pick the white-fleshed fish with the pinkest veins. Pink means that the blood in the fillet hasn't had time to oxidize. DO NOT BUY FISH WITH WHITE FLESH AND BROWN VEINS OR CENTER LINES.  Brown means that the fish is old. Fresh fish should be white and pinkish-red. No exceptions. If all that your market or grocery has is brown, switch your dinner plans away from a fish dish, and consider beef or chicken.

Another tip: lemon juice in bottles and actual juice from actual lemons are different things. This recipe calls for both. Do not mistake the former for the latter. There is a good reason to have an actual lemon on hand to make actual lemon wedges for diners to squeeze over their fillets. Finally, there is no substitute for fresh parsley here. None of the dried stuff. It's not an expensive recipe overall, so go ahead and buy the fresh parsley. Your mouth will thank you when your recipe turns out amazing.


Poached Fish With Lemon
Adapted from a recipe from Orangette.


4 or 5 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
8-10 branches Italian parsley, well-rinsed
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp lemon juice (bottled)
Water
2 tilapia fillets, sliced down the center line to make 4 portions (IMPORTANT NOTE: what you're going for here is four portions. If you use swordfish or salmon, then four portions will obviously be different than if you use tilapia or a similarly thinner fish. It's okay. What you want here is four portions of whatever fish you can get fresh.)
1 lemon, cut into 1/4 wedges
Salt
Pepper


Take the fish out of the fridge. Sprinkle salt and pepper over one side of the fillets, rub it in a bit, then turn them over and sprinkle-then-rub the other side. Let the fish sit aside to absorb the seasoning.

In the mean time, slice the leaves off the parsley stems. Discard the stems, and place the leaves, along with the minced garlic and 1 tsp salt into a 12-inch skillet or sauté pan. Add water to a depth of about 1 1/2 inches. (Seriously. Measure it. I used a ruler.) Add the bottled lemon juice. Bring the whole deal to a boil, cover it, then turn down the temperature until it's barely on the edge of boiling and let the whole thing simmer for 15 minutes. Your kitchen will probably smell like parsley and garlic.

When the poaching liquid is ready, gently place your fish fillets into the pan. Cover it again, and cook for 8 minutes if you're using tilapia. If you're using another fish, then the rule of thumb is 'use 8 min per inch' on the thickness of your fish steaks. Apply this rule to salmon, swordfish, mahi mahi, etc. If your fish is less than an inch thick, cook it for 8 mins (no really, time it), and call it a day.  Your poaching liquid should be VERY gently boiling: try to achieve a temp at which your water is barely bubbling, but also is not still.

When your fish is done, transfer each portion to a plate (I'd advise against serving it out of a serving dish, because the fish would cool down. You want to serve this as fresh and hot as you possibly can, so that the fish goes from saute pan to plate to mouth with as little interruption as possible). Use a 1/4 wedge of lemon per portion to sprinkle juice over the fish.

Makes 4 servings.

French Carrot Salad

This salad is terrifically simple and fast to prepare, but it's also very colorful and has bright, bold flavors that pair well with other simple, fast dishes. I served it tonight with poached fish and fresh snapped green beans for a beautiful, colorful, healthy plate that took about 30 minutes to prep start to finish. During the holiday season, when meals are often heavy and fussy, this is a welcome respite.

My take on this one isn't strictly the French version -- for something closer to what you'll get in Paris, omit the apples and add another carrot or two to make up the volume -- but it's darn close.


French Carrot Salad
 
2 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp Dijon mustard (you can safely substitute stone-ground mustard here as well)
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lb carrots, peeled and shredded
1 Fuji apple, UNpeeled and julienned into fine sticks
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (or l tsp dried parsley flakes)
Salt
Pepper

In a small bowl, whisk the orange juice, mustard, olive oil, salt, pepper, and parsley together until the dressing is completely blended. Combine the carrots and the apple in a medium bowl. Pour the dressing over the carrots and apples and toss thoroughly to coat the carrots and apples in dressing. Chill it for 30 minutes, then toss again to make sure all the dressing doesn't settle to the bottom of the bowl before serving.

Optional garnishes: golden raisins, walnuts, slivered almonds, or unsalted sunflower seeds

Makes 4 servings.

French Onion Soup

This soup takes a while to make, mostly because it takes some time to finely slice all those onions! Honestly, I usually give this about three hours from when I start on it until when I plan on serving. But the classic taste and comforting, homey air to it make this one totally worth it. Try it on a cold day with a good glass of wine to keep you company while you chop and stir.



French Onion Soup

4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 large red onions, thinly sliced
1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
1 large yellow cooking onion, thinly sliced (if you need a larger amount of soup, you can use two yellow onions, or even add another red onion. Don't add another sweet onion if you can help it, though)
48 fl oz. chicken stock (this is about one and a half boxes of Kitchen Staples stock, which is what I use)
32 oz beef stock (one box of the Kitchen Staples stock)
1 cup red wine (You can get creative here a little. Half red wine and half sherry is a tasty mix, for example)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried thyme
1 large (or 2 small) bay leaf
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Salt
Pepper
8 slices French or Italian bread
8 slices Gruyere or Swiss cheese slices, room temperature (Jarlsburg also works in the absence of gruyere)
1 rind of Gruyere or Swiss (optional)
1/2 cup shredded Asiago or mozzarella cheese, room temperature


Melt the butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Stir in salt and all onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are caramelized to a deep brown and are almost syrupy. This may take 45 minutes or even up to an hour and a quarter or so. Be patient. It's good advice to let the layer of onions on the bottom of the pan brown just a little bit (not burn, just caramelize), then stir the whole thing so that a different layer is on the bottom, etc. Continue caramelizing and stirring until your onions taste sweet when you sample them, and are a uniform medium brown. A good rule of thumb for the first few times making the soup is: if you think the onions are done, give them another fifteen minutes. Don't pull them off too early, they'll generally reach another level of caramelized goodness after your first instinct might be that they're finished. 

Mix chicken stock, beef stock, red wine and Worcestershire sauce into the pot with the onions. Add parsley, thyme, and bay leaf. Simmer over medium-high heat until the stock is reduced to about 1/2 of what you started with. This doesn't need to be a precise process, so just eyeball it. Reduce the heat to low, mix in the vinegar*, taste it after it's been simmering for at least ten minutes, then season to taste with salt and pepper. If you're using the rind of Gruyere or Swiss, add that to the soup now. Cover and keep over low heat to stay hot while you prepare the bread.

* Today's chemistry lesson via soup: salt is added to the initial caramelization process to help get all those sugars in the onions caramelizing. Sugars in the onions are also why we don't use sweet onions for all of the yellow onion content: their heavy sugar content would make the soup taste strangely sweet compared to the traditional french onion flavour. Vinegar is added because red onions have a tendency to turn somewhat grey-ish when caramelized and then added to soup (the same chemicals that make them red in the first place degrade with heat to a less appealing grey instead of brown) and the acid in the vinegar prevents this process from occurring, thus keeping your soup a nice warm brown colour. So don't neglect the salt just because you're worried about cholesterol (though I recommend that Kitchen Basics makes unsalted stocks, which are great for this), and don't neglect the vinegar. They're both in the recipe for chemistry reasons and will make your life easier when you're building your soup here.

Toast bread slices. If you're using a toaster oven or broiler to do this, turn the bread once so that it's toasted on all sides. Cut four of the bread slices into crouton-sized cubes, and serve in a small bowl to be added to the soup. Reserve the other four slices whole to be served alongside the soup. Arrange Gruyere slices and mozzarella in bowls so that diners can top their soup with them at the table.

Serve soup, bread, croutons, and cheeses while soup is still very hot. If you used the Gruyere or Swiss rind in the soup, remove rind before serving. Encourage diners to add croutons, and both cheeses to the soup before eating, then use the whole bread slice for sopping.

Serves 4-5. 

Chickpea, Artichoke, and Chicken Salad

My dad informed me that he'd never eaten chickpeas or artichoke hearts before I tried this variation on a chickpea-artichoke salad, but we both agreed we liked this simple, easy meal. It requires very little effort to prepare, but the flavors are wonderful.



Chickpea, Artichoke, and Chicken Salad

6 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided (less if you're using non-stick pans)
2 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1 16-oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed (I recommend Bush's as a brand; they seem to produce consistently good quality and don't have the annoying tinned taste of some other brands)
1 can quartered artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed
2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts (one for each person you intend to serve)
1/4 cup chicken stock
Pepper
Garlic salt or chicken rub (optional)
1/3 cup sliced or slivered almonds (seasonal alternative: pumpkin seeds)

In a large frypan, toast almonds (or pumpkin seeds, if you're using those) over medium heat until lightly browned. Transfer to a small bowl and set aside.

In the bottom of a large bowl, whisk together 3 Tbsp of the olive oil, lemon juice, basil, oregano, garlic and salt. Set aside.

In the same large frypan, heat another 1 Tbsp oil. Add the chickpeas and cook over medium heat, stirring often, until they are all golden brown (this takes about 10 minutes). Add to the bowl.

Heat the remaining 1 Tbsp oil in the pan and add the artichoke hearts, cut side down. Cook until they are browned, flipping over only once or twice to avoid breaking them up. Add them to the bowl as well.

While the artichokes are heating, in a separate pan, heat 1 Tbsp oil over high heat. Sprinkle the chicken breasts with pepper, and with garlic salt or chicken rub if desired. Place seasoned side down in the oil, then season the other side. Flip the chicken once the first side obtains a nice sear, and continue cooking. When the second side has seared as well, turn down the heat to medium and add the chicken stock to the pan. Cover and continue to cook at medium heat while you finish the artichokes and mix the salad.

Add the almonds to the salad and toss gently (try to avoid breaking up the artichokes), reserving a few of the almonds to serve as topping for people to add at the table. Slice the chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces, and spread atop salad. Serve while still warm.

Serves 2-3 as a main dish.